


Aftershock

by MilenaDaniels



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Family, Fear of Abandonment, Gen, Hurt Claudia Donovan, Parental Artie Nielsen, Sick Claudia Donovan, health scare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-07
Updated: 2012-11-07
Packaged: 2017-11-18 04:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/556684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MilenaDaniels/pseuds/MilenaDaniels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It may be a world of ceaseless wonders but that doesn't make any of them immortal. A health scare prompts an unexpected dive into past and present issues.  (Father/Daughter Artie & Claudia) (Post-S1)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What Amounts To Kidnapping

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is being transferred to my new account here. It was originally posted on Fanfiction.net and Livejournal on October 14, 2009.
> 
> Original notes:  
> "Just a note about Claudia's age given the discrepancies between the finale and the the earlier eps. Most of the boards are going with the theory that Joshua was exaggerating about her age in the episode "Claudia" and that would place her age when he disappeared as somewhere around 7. And since this is supposed to happen well before the end of Season 1, I'll be saying her age is around 18-19 in this fic."

Claudia let out a disgruntled sigh and tapped her foot rhythmically on the ground. Already frustrated with the situation, she became even more irate when her displays of annoyance went unheeded by her companion. He was dozing. Dozing. Claudia's eyes narrowed and she let her left foot slip rather forcefully to the side to kick him.

"Wh-what? What? Did they call us?" Claudia rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, Artie, they called us. That's why we're in the other room now." She replied sarcastically. "Oh, wait, no! I'm sorry, no, we're still here, aren't we?"

Artie huffed a sigh and straightened himself in his chair. "I'm sure it won't be long. Maybe I should have had Mrs. Frederic make a call. Oh but that's right, there was some brat who threw a tantrum of epic proportions at the idea. I wonder who that was again..."

"I didn't want to come here to begin with, geezer." Claudia returned heatedly. "If you wanna get your joints refitted with the latest models that's fine with me but you don't have to drag me along."

"Yeah, well we're not here for  _me_ , my dear." Artie reminded her. Claudia huffed and jerked herself properly back into her seat, her arms crossed. Artie sighed internally but refused to let himself budge. He didn't see it this way of course but  _some_  people could claim that it was partly his fault that they needed to be here. If he hadn't abandoned her over a decade ago...well, he had.

He felt Claudia's glare burn into the side of his face and hoped they'd be seen soon. The almost three hour ride over to Rapid City, South Dakota had already seen much of the same dynamic and he was getting tired of feeling like a villain.

* * *

_**Almost 4 Hours Ago** _

_Pete and Myka had left for the Bed and Breakfast; Pete, despite his good humour, was in overall pain from the full body electric shock therapy he'd given himself in St. Louis. Leena was waiting for all of them with a hot meal, something none of them had seen for almost three days...but Artie and Claudia wouldn't be tasting the sure-to-be succulent dishes for a long while yet because Mr. Anal Retentive wanted every piece of research they'd chucked about over the last three days picked up and stored away before they left._

" _Seriously, dude," Claudia moaned as she bent to pick up another pile of books, "this crap will still be here tomorrow."_

" _This place is cluttered enough as is, I don't want to have to walk into it in the morning." Artie returned, distractedly as always. He'd become very adept at shrugging off complaints with the recent additions to the warehouse team. Really all he had to do was dole out retorts every 5-10 minutes and he was set. When 13 minutes passed without having to crush teenaged rebellion, he looked over his shoulder to find Claudia doing absolutely nothing but facing the other wall._

" _Hey, you're the one who wants to leave. Faster you get to work, the faster you can." Artie called out._

" _Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on." She mumbled, sniffing once and stuffing something into her pocket._

" _Wha-What...are you crying?"_

" _Please," Claudia said, not turning around, "your fossilized tomes are covered in three different layers of dust and I haven't popped my anti-histamines today."_

" _Uh huh." Artie replied, moving more quickly than his age or size suggested to grab her face._

" _Hey!" Claudia shrieked, trying to jerk out of his grasp. "Personal bubble, dude. Look into it."_

" _Shut up." He replied brusquely. Using his finger to wipe off a drop of blood from the edge of her nose, he held it up at her eye level and glared at her. "What's this?"_

" _Corn syrup and red dye #2?" Claudia replied sheepishly with an attempt at a disarmingly innocent smile. Artie apparently wasn't in the mood because his glare hardened and he forced her into the chair near the desk._

" _Look you don't have to get your panties all bunched up, I'm fine." She sighed, accepting the tissue he gave her to wipe the bits she'd missed._

" _Uh huh, and how long have these been going on?" He asked, his arms crossed as he leaned on the desk._

" _Dude, it's just been this one." Claudia replied sincerely, holding his gaze for as long as she could until she had to look away. "Okay, two. But we've been burning the midnight oil and the candle at both ends trying to figure out this spine thing, it was bound to happen."_

" _Just two times?" He repeated._

" _Yeah! Two...dos, twice." She replied, annoyed._

" _Over only three days." Claudia stayed silent that time._

" _So tell me, which part of that is a lie because this looks like more than twice to me." Artie replied, tugging out the cloth she'd tucked into her jacket earlier. It was almost entirely covered in differently saturated patches of blood. Claudia exhaled tiredly and held up her hands._

" _Okay, fine, busted. Listen, all I need is some sleep - which may I point out you're keeping me from - and I will be just fine." With that conclusion to this exhausting affair, Claudia stood up and made to leave but swayed slightly as a bout of dizziness assaulted her._

" _No, you won't." Artie retorted, his hands coming down on her shoulders to steady her. "You've been away from the effects of Joshua's experiment for long enough for any of this to have ended. Unless..."_

" _Unless it left me with some not-so-pleasant souvenirs." Claudia bit out. "Yeah, I get the picture, Artie. I actually painted it myself almost a month ago."_

_His expression changed from frustration to concern in the span of a second and before she knew it she was out of his grasp and he was getting their coats._

" _Come on." He ordered, holding hers out to her._

" _Where are we going?" She asked suspiciously._

" _Come on!" He repeated, grabbing her arm and steering her out._

* * *

"This is ridiculous." Artie grumbled. "There are what, 10 000 people in all of South Dakota? How can they all be here now?" A nurse had come to take Claudia's history and a blood sample but still no word on the scans Artie had  _politely requested_.

"See? Staying here is counter-productive. As stoked as I am to go road tripping with ya, Artie, my bed is calling me." Claudia made it to her feet (without swaying, score!) and made shooing motions towards the door. "Come on, big guy, up and at 'em."

* _Claudia Nielsen report to Radiology. Claudia Nielsen, Radiology.*_

"Ha!" Artie cried, getting to his feet.

"What? Who-" Claudia replied, her brow furrowed.

"That's you, kid." He replied, pulling her down the corridor.

"Dude, I'm a little past the age to play foster kid." She grumbled, secretly nursing the spike of joy the idea of being a daughter for a bit brought her.

"Uh huh, and I'm sure that your years of unemployed house-jumping has provided you with a great health plan?" Artie asked her sarcastically. She made a face. "That's what I thought. Let's go."

 _Well, thank you Pragmatie Artie for bursting that bubble,_ Claudia thought sourly. "That's fraud, G-Man."

"Yeah, well, when you've committed treason against two major world powers everything else seems...slightly less major." Artie quipped quietly and conspiratorially. "Not that the government is going to know about this. For all intents and purposes, medically speaking, tax-wise, blah blah blah, we - Mrs. Frederic - thought it best to make you, well...my...you know...dependent. For now at least, until you actually start existing in the system again."

As they got to the Radiology wing, Claudia suppressed her grin and just nodded as if that made perfect sense to her. It wasn't quite the d-word the little fairytale-believing, rainbow-loving girl inside her was hoping for but she'd take it.

 


	2. Hard, Plastic Couches

As soon as they pushed past the doors to Radiology, a nurse came by and whisked Claudia away to get changed into a hospital gown. Artie paced a narrow strip of the waiting room, picking up random objects only to set them down again until a jarring rendition of "The Final Countdown" nearby drew his attention. He looked around to pinpoint the sound and his eyes landed on Claudia's messenger bag. He hesitated a moment - a part of his brain reminding him that girls had a thing with privacy - but the heavy glare of passing nurses pushed his hand and he rummaged the contents until he found her cell phone. The name on the screen was familiar and he quickly searched his pockets for the Farnsworth before mentally cursing and flipping the phone open.

"Myka, hi."

"Artie!? Where's Claudia? Where are you guys?" He didn't need to see her face to know Myka looked worried and frustrated...and her neck was probably leaning to the right.

"They answered? Where are they? Do they need help?" Pete's voice came from the background.

"Guys we're fine, we're just...we're out for a bit." Artie sighed, he used to be a better liar back in the day. If Claudia wasn't being such a brat about anyone knowing where they were...

"Out? Out where? What are you doing? And why did you leave the Farnsworth behind? We thought you'd been kidnapped, Artie!"

Artie rolled his eyes and jumped when he caught the stern, disapproving glare of the nurse at the main desk. She cleared her throat with great exaggeration and pointed to the sign beside her reading: "Cell phones are forbidden within the hospital due to the sensitivity of medical equipment." Artie scoffed but didn't feel like getting into the physics of transmitting waves at the moment. He moved the mouthpiece of the phone away and pointed to Claudia's bag.

"Could you just look after that for a second? I have to-" He trailed off, gesturing to the phone in his hand, and quickly left to find an exit when she nodded.

"Artie? Artie! Are you there? Who was that? Was that Claudia?" Myka's voice was starting to grate on his nerves.

"What? Is Claudia not with him?"

"I don't know Pete, stop talking! Artie? Are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here, I just...it was noisy, just had to step outside." He replied tiredly as he stepped into the cool South Dakotan evening breeze. "We're fine. We haven't been kidnapped. Yes, Claudia is with me but she's not available at the moment. Why are you guys at the warehouse?"

"What? Artie, you guys didn't show up after two hours and you weren't answering your Farnsworth! I think that's grounds to go check up on you guys, especially since whenever one or both of you don't answer, it's because you're in life-threatening peril!" Myka all but yelled into the receiver.

"Peril? There's peril? Where are they, Myka? Do they even know?"

"No, they're not. I don't know. Where are you guys, Artie?"

"Okay, guys, listen to me now: we are fine. We should be back later tonight so have Leena save us some supper if there's any left and you two: relax, have a cookie, drink some warm milk and just...relax. Everything's fine but I gotta go now, talk to you later." With that, Artie quickly closed the phone, disconnecting the line, and breathed a sigh of exhaustion. These kids - all of them - would be the death of him. Speaking of...

The waiting room of the Radiology department had not fallen into silence after the disruption Claudia's cell phone caused and the reason wasn't very hard to find. Claudia's bag was no longer on the chair where he'd left it but the girl herself was yelling up a storm in the corridor.

"Look just get out of my way!" She ordered the nurse standing between her and the change rooms, she was wearing her most intimidating face but it lost a bit of impact due to the blue tent she was now drowning in.

"Ms. Nielsen..."

"Claudia." The teenager ground out, her fists visibly tightening around her bag.

"Claudia," the nurse tried again, her voice soothing, "you have very alarming symptoms and I think it would be best if you stayed to complete your tests to make sure nothing's wrong." Artie's eyebrows furrowed deeply.

"She's not going anywhere." He answered for Claudia, stepping up to them and snatching her bag back out of her hands. "What are you thinking? Come on. Your butt is getting in that chair over there and it's not moving until you're called."

Artie waited a moment but when his charge didn't move so much as an inch, he grabbed her upper arm and led her.

"Sit." He ordered her when they got to the chair, and she obeyed, very mechanically. She hadn't snapped back or retorted something quippy yet. It was weird.

"What are you thinking? You get dressed for the show and now you're backing out?" Artie asked the quiet girl, taking the seat next to her. "I was gone five minutes, what could hav-" Claudia shifted in her seat and stole her bag back from Artie to place it on her lap.

"Wha...Is that...I was only gone five minutes, Myka cal-"

"Yeah, you left." Claudia accused him, a look of surprise overtaking her face as the words slipped out. She straightened in her chair and shook her head quickly. "Never mind. You said Myka called?"

"No."

"..Yeah you did dude, you said you went to answ-"

"No," Artie reiterated, frowning, "not 'never mind'. Why did that upset you so much you were going to storm out of here and take out anyone who got in your way?"

"Look, it's nothing, okay? I didn't want to come here in the first place, if you're gonna bail I'm not sticking around to be poked and prodded on my own whim. I'm what you'd call 'normal'." She defended herself with no small dose of attitude.

"Claudia." She ignored him.

"Claudia." The girl cringed when he used his no-nonsense, 'stop bullshitting me' voice. None of them had been able to evade its power yet.

"Look, dude, it's not complicated. You left, okay? It just, it felt like last time all over again. So excuse me for making assumptions any person with a working brain would." She griped, looking away, leaving Artie to rack his brain.

"Last time... Twelve years ago?" Artie posed carefully, his voice much softer.

"No, that other time you threw me to the wolves. Yeah, that last time." She finally turned to shoot him a look of frustration.

"Look, Claudia..."

"I told you it was stupid." Claudia interrupted him, and plastered a wry grin on her face for show. "Just give a girl some warning next time. Maybe I wanted a coke or something while you were out."

"Right, I'll do that. Next time." Artie replied, willing to go along with forgetting this whole conversation. For about a four and a half minutes.

"You know I couldn't have taken you with me, right?" He ventured slowly, watching her shoulders deflate and her eyes go to the ceiling. "I mean, you've seen now how we operate and I'd only been in charge of the warehouse and new agents for barely a year."

"No, yeah, I totally get it. Don't worry about it." She dismissed him casually, hands waving away his invisible worries.

"Okay." Artie nodded, looked away, and nodded again before sitting back in his chair.

"...but you didn't have to just up and disappear." She said after a long moment of silence, shrugging one shoulder uncomfortably. "I mean, you were there one second letting me blubber all over you and the next you're introducing me to two people I'm guessing worked for Mrs. F and when I turned around you were just...gone."

"They did." Artie confirmed. "Retired agents living in the area. I called her...after."

"Yeah, figured." Claudia retorted blandly.

"Look it's not like you would have been any better off with me, I'm not good with...children and you know how the warehouse is, not to mention-"

"Artie," she interrupted, holding her hands up with a tiny smile, "dude, you're circling."

"Yeah, catch that, did you?" He grinned slightly, passing over the stubble under his chin with his fingers. Classic Artie Nielsen nervous tick.

"They don't call me a whiz kid for nothing." She replied, the tip of her tongue sticking out past her teeth.

"So I've heard." Artie chuckled emptily, distracted by this perpetually incomplete heart-to-heart. The teenager beside him seemed content (if one can be content while tense and awkward) to let sleeping dogs lie, sitting back in her chair, submerged in faded blue cotton, aimlessly scrutinizing the room and its sparse populace. He wasn't though. Content, that is. He knew she was holding a lot back. Whether she just wasn't comfortable with the topic or she wasn't used to expressing herself honestly...he didn't know. This conversation was going to kill him, he knew that, but since when had the certainty of impending misery stopped him from rushing in head first?

"I didn't mean to make it seem like I was abandoning you. I knew you'd be better off with the other agents." Artie tried to explain haltingly, startling her out of her observations of the nurses. "And I...I guess I figured you'd realize you hated me soon enough and I probably shouldn't be around for that. And that I know I'm right about, you did hate me."

Claudia looked at him blankly for a good moment before nodding deeply.

"I did." She admitted freely, her lips pursing. "But I only started hating you after you left, Artie."

He stayed quiet, knowing she needed to speak her piece. Though in all honesty, her words had punched him square in the gut and he wasn't sure he could say anything anyway.

"You really don't get it, do you?" She balked incredulously. "It doesn't matter what you did for a living or whether you were trained at Toys 'R Us. You were the last person I trusted, you were the very last person on the face of the Earth I felt safe with. And you were the only one who voluntarily walked away."

"But why-"

"Why?" She parroted mockingly. "Because, professor, I don't know if you remember but Joshua was my entire world. He raised me, took care of me, protected me. And he admired you. So I admired you. He trusted you, so I trusted you. It's not that complicated. I had zero friends my age because I was that weird kid, no adult was comfortable around me as soon as they knew I could beat their SAT scores. So I had Joshua, and you by extension. The only adult who didn't keep a wide radius of me. I mean Joshua was older than me by a hell of a lot but you were a certified, bonafide adult who didn't treat me like a freak. Add in the fact that you tried to reassure me when I was scared and then when the world went to hell you let me cry on your shoulder in an expression of the world's biggest cliche... Why do you think?"

"I didn't realize-" Artie tried to say, his voice oddly strangled.

"No, I know." Claudia bit back somewhat harshly before closing her eyes and making an effort to calm down. "I know that. Now. But back then, I trusted you to be there. And you just disappeared as soon as I turned around, and you never came back. No note, no goodbye, no 'have a good life, kid'. You just left without a second glance like I didn't mean a thing."

"I'm sorry." Artie whispered pleadingly, laying a hand on hers on the arm rest. "I didn't- I never...I was just...a d-bag."

That somber utterance prompted a short burst of laughter out of her that took them both by surprise.

"You were." She agreed, smirking. "That you were, professor."

"I am serious though, Claudia." He repeated, needing her to believe him. "I am sorry for leaving you."

"I know." She assured him. "And...I mean, you know I don't hate you anymore right?"

"Yeah, I know." He nodded. "Well I do now. Earlier when you almost made the nurse cry I might have thought differently."

"She was not going to cry!" Claudia protested. "Besides, she's lucky I didn't zap her with the Tesla."

"I never gave you a Tesla." Artie frowned with consternation.

"I know." She replied impishly. Artie's frown lowered into a solid glare of suspicion.

"You made your own Tesla?"

"Well it wasn't exactly hard." Claudia beamed mischievously. Artie's glare didn't lessen. "What? It's not like I'm mass producing them and selling them on the street. A girl just needs protection!"

"Give it." Artie ordered, her hand opened.

Claudia huffed but reached into her bag and very conspicuously plopped the strange-looking device in her mentor's hands. He paused a moment to admire the handy-work before stuffing it in his jacket pocket.

"Remind me never ever to give you free time again." Artie grumbled, sending her a sidelong glance. "And may I remind you that although I am a lot older, I'm also a lot smarter than you are and if you really think you managed to successfully get me off the topic, you're only proving my point."

Claudia groaned and let her head fall back.


	3. Ominous Corridors

> "Remind me never ever to give you free time again." Artie grumbled, sending her a sidelong glance. "And may I remind you that although I am a lot older, I'm also a lot smarter than you are and if you really think you managed to successfully get me off the topic, you're only proving my point."
> 
> Claudia groaned and let her head fall back. 

"Really?" Claudia bemoaned. "You're really digging this Dr. Phil stuff? We should tour the talk shows during sweeps, we could get our own reality spin-off."

"Yeah, yeah, pop culture references will only buy you so much time." Artie warned her.

"Artie, man, seriously, I said all I had to say." She whined. "Trust me. Weight majorly lifted. I'm tapped out."

"Yeah, uh huh. You thought I'd abandoned you in some strange city 3 hours away from home." He reminded her.

"Yeah well 'home' is a loose concept for some people."

"Wha- You...you don't consider the warehouse, Leena's...home?" Artie asked, taken aback. "But you were the one who wanted to stay."

"You're not listening, professor," Claudia tilted her head sideways, "I love it at the warehouse, at Leena's...with you guys. I don't want to leave, ever. But...I mean, it's tough to shake the feeling that one day I'm gonna turn around again and it's all gonna be gone. I'm not exactly known for the great track record with luck."

"We're not going anywhere, Claudia." Artie promised her. "I mean, the dangers of the artifact-retrieval life aside, we're not going anywhere."

"Yeah well, you know how behavioural conditioning works." Claudia shrugged, cherishing for the time being the idea of a family that wouldn't leave her. "I'll deal with it."

"Okay. Yeah. Well I'll be here if you need help with that." Artie swore sincerely. "It's the least I can do."

"It  _really_  is." Claudia agreed whole-heartedly, grinning.

"Brat." He scoffed, swatting her arm.

"Geezer." She retorted, smiling brightly before clapping her hands and standing. "Well it is just  _crazy_  how much better I feel already. Haven't felt this good in years. I say we blow this very large and sterile popsicle stand and head on home for some R&R."

Artie rolled his eyes and tugged her back down into the chair. "Look, it won't take long now. You'll be in and out in like 10 minutes tops, the scans take 5 minutes maximum. And then we'll at least know what's going on."

"Yeah well, you know what?" Claudia asked rhetorically, her voice very casual. "You might want to know what's going on but I really kinda totally  _don't_."

"Wha-Why? Why wouldn't yo-"

"Would you want to find out that you're dying, Artie?" She asked him pointedly. "I don't want to find out that I've just started my life, my  _actual_  life, just a few months ago and that it's going to end in a few more."

"Claudia..." Artie tried to come up with a way to reassure her but was at a loss.

"No, Artie. You  _know_  that if they do find something, it'll be bad news and most of that bad news isn't fixable." She was biting her lower lip now and the fear in her eyes hurt his heart to the point where he almost wished he hadn't forced her to come.

"Claudia?" The nurse called from the door, file in hand. "We're ready for you."

"Ha, super timing." Claudia said humourlessly. She made to rise but Artie laid a hand on her arm.

"Hey, look," he said softly, "it's up to you. You can get the scan or we can just ditch this place and steal a few more gowns on the way out for making us wait."

That got a grin out of her at least. "I'd really rather a couple of defibrillators, this is just not my colour."

"So?" Artie prompted. "What's it gonna be?"

Claudia took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly as they both rose. "Alright, let's get 'er done."

"Your dad can come if you'd like." The nurse piped in from the doorway, having seen the girl's hesitation. Both patient and companion suddenly stood still. And then came a whirlwind of a conversation no one in the immediate vicinity could follow.

"I can-"

"You don't have to-"

"Oh well if you don't wan-"

"No,no it's not that I don't-"

"I mean it could be interesting-"

"I don't want you to be bored or-"

"No yeah, scans are-"

"Yeah they're-"

"Yeah..."

"Okay..."

"So," Artie grinned, holding his hand out in a gesture very familiar to their relationship, "shall we?"

Claudia chuckled and shook her head. "Please, dude, I'm a big girl now. Besides, holding your hand down a long corridor has not brought us luck in the past."

Artie grimaced and dropped his hand. "There is that."

"So how long's it gonna take to know what's tinkerin' up there?" She asked, her voice hesitant as they got into the MRI room.

"You're lucky. The radiologist is actually in-house today and the doctor should be able to give you the results probably within the hour." The technician replied perkily, helping Claudia onto the moving bed.

"Yeah, lucky." She murmured, wondering if from today on she'd be on a fixed countdown to the end. And if...or rather,  _when_  she'd start getting depressed over not having lived any kind of life. And if she'd start to resent Joshua at all. And-

"Hey Artie?" She called, eyes on the ceiling, her voice slightly strangled.

"Yeah." He responded, pushing away from the wall to stand at the side of the bed. "What's up?"

"Hm? Nothing much. I'm just maybe not as big as I thought." Claudia replied lightly, her eyes never straying from the tiles. Artie's brow furrowed but when he felt a cold, small hand slip into his and latch on, he understood and squeezed it between his two as the large machine whirred noisily to life.

 


	4. The Good, the Bad, and the New

In record time that felt like three centuries to the teenager, the scans were done, she had changed back into her own clothes, and they were back to waiting in the plastic chairs of the waiting room.

"You're gonna be fine." Artie said softly.

"I thought we'd talked about promises you can't keep, Artie. You've already made enough for a lifetime, wouldn't you say?" Claudia replied, her voice not unkind but clearly indicating she not in the mood for platitudes.

She shifted on her chair for the third time in two minutes and started bouncing her leg up and down. Instead of trying to reassure her again, Artie went to the nurse's desk and got a piece of paper and a pen. Claudia followed him with her eyes but didn't understand what he was doing until he put the paper on her lap and the pen in her hand. On it was a difficult differential equation to solve and Claudia had never been so grateful.

She'd gone through three equations before the doctor finally called them in, only a short 8 minutes before the deadline Artie had decided upon. He hadn't been quite clear on what the deadline would have entailed but he imagined something along the lines of pulling the fire alarm, stealing her file and kidnapping anyone who looked like a doctor.

"Okay," the doctor began energetically as they each took a seat in the small office, "so there's good news and bad."

"How 'bout I take the good, you keep the bad, and we'll call it even for making me wear a tent?" Claudia suggested sardonically, a fake smile on her face.

Artie shot her a look but it quickly turned into a grimace as he pointed to his nose, letting her know she was bleeding again.

"Lovely." She said simply and dabbed at her nose with an entirely new blood-soaked cloth Artie hadn't seen before. His glare told her he was not impressed.

"That's actually perfect timing." The doctor said, rolling his chair over to get the blood pressure cuff. "I'm going to take your blood pressure while this is happening, okay? Let me know if it gets to be too tight."

As the digital read-out of the sphygmomanometer chimed, the doctor smiled.

"That's high, isn't it?" Artie asked worriedly.

"It is indeed." The doctor agreed, taking off the cuff. "That is the bad news. The good news is that it's not anything worse."

"High blood pressure?  _High blood pressure_?" Claudia reiterated dubiously. "Seriously?"

"We found no elevation in the white blood cell count, and you don't seem to have a deficiency in anything but iron which is only deficient because of the amount of blood you've been losing steadily for this long while and not seeking treatment for." The doctor chastised her good-naturedly. "That anemia is what's been causing you to get dizzy as well. If you hadn't come in when you did you'd have been adding fainting spells to your list very soon."

Claudia didn't need to look at him to know Artie was frowning at her again.

"Cool!" She addressed the doctor instead, a real smile starting to make its way through. "So I can leave now?"

"Not quite." The doctor replied. "It's not a brain tumour but that doesn't mean your condition isn't serious. When your blood pressure gets to the point where it's bursting capillaries, that's a very dangerous sign." He gave his patient a moment to absorb his words before going on. "You said in your history that you've been through a lot of stress recently and your eating and sleeping hasn't been quite up to human standards. Has that stress been resolved?"

Claudia shot a glance at Artie, wondering how to answer. They'd successfully brought Joshua back from the painful interdimensional void, but then Pete had proven recently that the warehouse life wasn't all fun and games.

"Yeah," she said slowly, "I mean the biggest chunk of it is definitely over."

"Good, then you should have no excuse for getting a full 8 hours in every night and eating at least something that looks green once in a while,  _unsalted_." The doctor told her sternly before turning to Artie. "Dad, you're going to have to be on the ball and make sure she's sticking to that."

Claudia snorted with glee, both at the thought of Artie being able to keep her in line, and also at the expression on his face when the doctor addressed him as her father and gave him all this responsibility. It was somewhere between a deer caught in the headlights and that same deer as the headlights vanished into the fog, leaving roadkill behind.

"Now I want to see you in maximum three works and absolutely no later because if it doesn't go down on its own with these lifestyle changes you're definitely going to need prescription medication. For the anemia, you'll just need over-the-counter iron supplements. But if the headaches, nose bleeds, dizziness or whatever other ailment gets worst I want you back in this office asap, no pussyfooting around." The doctor ordered her, commanding his full authority.

"Yes, sir!" Claudia jumped to her feet and saluted him. "Thank you, sir!" Artie just rolled his eyes and thanked the other man before pulling the beaming Claudia out of the office. When the automatic doors of the hospital's front entrance closed behind them outside, both were finally able to let go of the vice of anxiety that had plagued them. One for mere excruciating hours, the other for months.

"So, I'm...not dying." Claudia said, her smiled only suppressed for half a second before its full force was unleashed.

"No, you're not, you nihilist." Artie returned good-naturedly.

"Hey,  _you_  were the one worried enough to drag me almost all the way to Wyoming!" Claudia scoffed, poking him in the arm. "Who knew you were such a mother hen... _pops_."

"What, are you from the 50's?" Artie complained, starting off for the car.

"Oh, big talk from the guy who was probably there for the inauguration of Warehouse 4,  _pa_." She teased him, trailing along after him.

"And now you're from rural Tennessee?" He protested. Claudia was quiet for a moment and when he turned around, he found himself with an armful of teenager.

"Thanks, Artie." The muffled voice spoke on from a spot near his shoulder. "You know, for dragging me here against my will and making me undergo medical procedures I didn't want."

"Well sure, when you say it like that..." He smirked and pat the tiny girl on the back. After a final moment of indulgence, Claudia stepped back and nodded decisively.

"Okay so I'm starved. Let's hit a taco place on the way back." She suggested, hopping into the passenger's side of the bombastically red middle-aged crisis known as a sports car.

"Uh uh, no way." Artie admonished her. "The doctor said  _green_ , not...well, just no. Leena will have saved something for you that's a lot healthier."

Claudia groaned and let her head hit the headrest. "I just had a flash of the next year of my life with you hovering. It's very unpleasant."

"You better believe it, kid." Artie smirked at her before pulling out of the parking lot and heading for home. He had made a huge mistake by leaving her to the system twelve years ago but there was no way he was going to let anything happen to her now that she was back in his care.

* * *

A few days later, an extremely bored Claudia dragged herself down the stairs of the bed and breakfast to reach the heavenly smell of the breakfast Leena had made for her. When she spotted the french toast, she forgave the caretaker for becoming Artie's in-house spy.

Claudia had been right on the money when she'd predicted Artie would become insufferable. He had schedule out her life. Her life. He'd scheduled it. For the last half of her life she'd grown accustomed to coming and going as she pleased...and yet here she was submitting to his tyranny. She couldn't even count on the guys to back her up. Pete had tried to sneak her goodies or kidnap her into town beyond her new curfew but Myka and Artie had caught on and now kept their hawk eyes on him.

"Good morning, Claudia." Leena greeted her warmly, setting the all-natural syrup next to her plate.

"Morning?" She grumbled back, trying to pretend she didn't see the fruit lining her plate. "I could have sworn it was the afternoon already." Among his many new rules, Claudia was banned from going to the warehouse before 10 am and wasn't allowed to stay past 6 pm. This was his attempt at making sure she got enough sleep and she disliked him greatly for it.

Leena smiled compassionately and went to the counter to retrieve something.

"Artie left this for you this morning." She said, placing a cell phone and a written note on the table.

"This is my cell." Claudia said with confused surprise, turning to ask Leena about it but she'd already left the room. "Who jacks a person's phone?" She muttered to herself. She went to the note for answers but all it said was " _Speed-dial 1_ ".

"Okay then, not mysterious at all." She mumbled, opening her phone to do the note's bidding. As she pressed the correct keys, the phone screen showed " _Calling Artie..._ " which only served to confused her more.

"Hello?" Came an out-of-breath voice after four rings. Claudia frowned.

"Artie?"

"Claudia, hey, good morning." Artie's digitized voice greeted happily. "You got my note?"

"Yeah..." She trailed off, her brow furrowing more deeply. "Dude, when did  _you_  get a cell phone?"

"Oh um, yesterday." He answered, his sheepish tone making her smirk.

"You know this is totally  _new_ fangled right?" She teased him, picking up the syrup and covering her french toast with it in a way she knew would make him frown.

"Yeah...I know." His voiced sounded strained but resigned. "But I figure, you know, the next time you have...doubts...at least you won't need to hunt me down. Or you know, break into a top secret facility. Or scare a nurse."

"I got it, geezer." She replied, rolling her eyes before letting the impact of his motivation settle on her. "Thanks, Artie."

"Yeah, no problem." He returned quickly, obviously discomfited. "Well I uh, I gotta get back to work."

"Yeah, no, totally. I'll be in soon." She said needlessly, he knew she'd be showing up at exactly 10:00 am like every morning since the hospital trip.

"See you then." He replied before severing the connection.

Closing her own phone, Claudia set it down on the table gently before leaning back and grinning. One good turn deserves another, and she felt very strongly that she should return Artie's gift of bedazzling with her own artistic touch to his cell phone. As she conjured up different flamboyant styles to use, she remembered her forgotten syrupy breakfast. When she went to dig in, however, Artie's frown of worry crept into her head and refused to leave. With a sigh, she started scraping off the syrup from her toast and stabbed a piece of fruit with her fork.

He was lucky she was starting to believe in this whole 'there for you' family thing. Very lucky. And so was she.

 


End file.
